Editors weigh in on ‘T-word’

HonestReporting has continually stressed the importance of calling terror ‘terror’ in news reports, whether the premeditated attack against innocent civilians occurs in New York City, Jerusalem, or Baghdad.

The executive editor of the Miami Herald has just expressed his paper’s commitment to do so:

It’s Herald policy to use the most neutral language available in a given situation. We, too, label those who fight for a cause as militants. But unlike some of our colleagues, we see a line where a militant becomes a terrorist and we don’t shy away from the latter word. When a suicide bomber blows up a bus carrying innocent civilians, it’s an act of terrorism, not militancy.

The Herald is the latest in a string of papers to recently address this issue head-on, however belatedly.
Here’s an overview of the positions they have expressed. (Note particularly the distinction between al Qaeda and Hamas that the Orlando Sentinel, Boston Globe and Washington Post attempted to make) :